BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Engineering, Architecture and Fine Arts

CHEMICAL AND FOOD ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
Gov. Pablo Borbon Campus II,
Alangilan, Batangas City, Philippines 4200
www.batstate-u.edu.ph Telefax: (043) 300-4044 locs. 106-108

ChE 421
Separation Process and Introduction to Particle Technology

Aquino, Charmaine Pearl L.

Arellano, Oliver E.
Gutierrez, Venus Abigail D.

ChE-4201

SCREENING

Engr. Rejie C. Magnaye

Instructor
I. Introduction

What is screening?

Screening (milling) is the separation of various sizes of grains into two or more portions
by means of screening surface. It also refers to the process of breaking down, separating,
sizing, or classifying aggregate material. For instance rock crushing or grinding to produce
uniform aggregate size for construction purposes, or separation of rock, soil or aggregate
material for the purposes of structural fill or land reclamation activities.

The grinding of solid matters occurs under exposure of mechanical forces that trench the
structure by overcoming of the interior bonding forces. After the grinding the state of the solid is
changed: the grain size, the grain size disposition and the grain shape.

The screening operation is industrially carried out in order to:

 remove the fines from a feed material before a reduction equipment such as jaw crusher,
ball mill or rod mill
 prevent an incompletely crushed material (oversize) from entering into other unit
operations
 produce a commercial or process grade material to meet specificparticle size limits
 remove the pines from a finished product prior to shipping

Applications of Screening

There are a wide range of screening objectives. The main purposes in the minerals industry
are:

• Sizing or Classifying, to separate particles by size, usually to provide a downstream

unit process with the particle size range suited to that unit operation;

• Scalping, to remove the coarsest size fractions in the feed material, usually so that they
can be crushed or removed from the process;

• Grading, to prepare a number of products within specified size ranges. This is important
in quarrying and iron ore, where the final product size is an important part of the
specification;

• Media recovery, for washing magnetic media from ore in dense medium circuits;

• Dewatering, to drain free moisture from a wet sand slurry;

• De-sliming or de-dusting, to remove fine material, generally below 0.5 mm from a wet
or dry feed; and

• Trash removal, usually to remove wood fibers from a fine slurry stream.

Types of Screening

• Dry Screening

- The treatment of a material containing a natural amount of moisture or a material that

has been dried before screening.

• Wet Screening

- An operation when water is added to the material being treated for the purpose of washing
the fine material through the screen.

Screening can also be:

 • Fine Screening

- Separation in the size range of 4 to 48 mesh.

• Ultrafine Screening

- Separation for sizes smaller than 48 mesh.

Some Important Terms

• Mesh

- Number of opening per linear inch

• Screen aperture

- Clear space between individual wires on the screen

• Screen Interval

- Relationship between the successive sizes of screen opening in series

Other terms:

• Oversize or Plus Materials

- Materials that remain on a given screening surface.

• Undersize or Minus Materials

- Materials passing through a screening surface.

• Intermediate Materials

- Materials passing on a screen surface and retained on a subsequent surface.

Factors Affecting Screening Performance

• Particle size

– As the particle size approaches the aperture size the chance of passage falls of
rapidly. These near mesh size particles tend to peg or plug the apertures thereby reducing the
screen efficiency.

• Feed rate

– A low feed rate and a very long screening time can result in an almost complete
separation. However industrial screening practice demands high feed rates, as a result dwell
time for the particles on the screen is short.

• Screen angle

– The chances of a particle passing through the screen is maximum when the particle
approaches the aperture perpendicular to the aperture. If a particle approaches the aperture at
a shallow angle, it will “see” a narrower effective aperture dimension and near mesh particles
are less likely to pass.

• Open area
 – The chance of passing through the aperture is proportional to the percentage of open
area in the screen material, which is defined as the ratio of the net area of the apertures to the
whole area of the screening surface.

• Vibration

– Screens are vibrated in order to throw particles off the screening surface so that they
can again be presented to the screen, and to convey the particles along the screen. The right
type of vibration also induces stratification of the feed material, which allows the fines to work
through the layer of particles to the screen surface while causing larger particles to rise to the
top.

• Moisture

– The amount of surface moisture present in the feed has a marked effect on screening
efficiency, as does the presence of clays and other sticky materials. Damp feeds screen very
poorly as they tend to agglomerate and “blind” the screen apertures.

Comparison of Ideal and Actual Screen

The objective of screen is to accept a feed containing a mixture of particles of various sizes and
separate it into two fractions, an underflow that is passed through the screen and an overflow
that is rejected by the screen.

Ideal screen Actual screen

1. Yields sharp separation. 1. Does not yield sharp separation.
2. Efficiency of the screen is 100%. 2. Efficiency of the screen is less than 100%..
3. Such screens do not found in practice/ 3. Such screens are available in practice.
reality.

Types of Screening Equipments:

Stationary Screens and Grizzlies

 Grizzlies (fixed inclined screens) are grid of parallel metal bars set in an inclined
stationary frame and are used for the coarse screening of large lumps.
 Stationary inclined woven–metal screens- operates in the same way, separating
particles ½ to 4 in I size
 They are effective only with very coarse free-flowing solids containing few fine
particles

Gyrating Screens

 The particles are being screen through gyratory vibration which involves circular or
spiral motion

Vibrating Screens

 are used in a coarse range and also down into fine meshes( fine sizing)
 The vibrations may be generated mechanically or electrically.
 Mechanical vibrations are usually transmitted from high speed eccentrics to the
casing of the unit and from there to steeply inclined screens.
 Electrical vibrations from heavy-duty solenoids are transmitted to the casing or
directly to the screens.
 Centrifugal Sifter

 In these machines, the screen is a horizontal cylinder of a woven metal or plastic.

 High-speed helical paddles on a central shaft impel the solids against the inside of
the stationary screen; fines pass through , and oversize is conveyed to the
discharge.

Trommels (revolving screens)

 are generally used for fairly large particles.

Oscillating screens

 are used for the finer meshes below 4-mesh.

In screening operation, coarse particles drop easily through the large openings in a
stationary surface but with fine particles the screens must be agitated by shaking, gryating or
vibrating it mechanically or electrically.

Four General Types of Screening Surfaces

• Woven Wire Cloth

- Usual screen, for fine materials, course and fine operation

• Silk Bolting Cloth

- For ultrafine separation, replaced by nylon

• Punched Plates

- For coarse separation, square shaped

• Bar Screen

- For a large and heavy piece of materials separation, made from iron bar or any metal

Effectiveness of Screens

The effectiveness of a screen(screen efficiency ) is a measure of the success pf the

screen in closely separating undersize and oversize materials.

The screen effectiveness based on the oversize material is the ratio of the amount of
oversize material A that is actually in the overflow to tha amount ofoversize material A in the
feed

Capacity and Effectiveness of Screens

 The capacity and effectiveness are measures of the performance in industrial screening.
The capacity of the screen is the mass material that can be fed per unit time to a unit area of
the screen. Capacity and effectiveness are opposing factors. To obtain the maximum
effectiveness, the capacity must be small, and large capacity is obtainable only at the expense
of a reduction in effectiveness.The capacity of the screen is controlled simply by varying the rate
of feed to the unit

Ideally, a particle would have the greatest chance of passing through the screen if it
struck the surface perpendicularly, if it were so oriented that its minimum dimensions were
parallel with the screen surface, if it were unimpeded by other particles, and if did not stick to or
wedge into the screen surface.